March 5th, 2013

Rosetta Stone Status Update: Level 3 Done, Dutch done

This will be the last Rosetta Stone update for a while (possibly forever -- sort of depends if they add more levels, create a new version, fix the A.U.B. transaction etiquette problem and send out a patch and I get ambitious and decide to check it out, etc.).

I think it's probably accurate to believe you would be at or almost at A2 on the CEFR after going through 3 levels of RS Nederlands (altho to some extent that might depend on how hard you game the pronunciation/speaking sections: if you make a good faith effort, you'll do fine; if you notice how bad the voice rec is and figure out how to exploit that and the programming structure around the problems with the voice rec, well, on your own head be it). Based on descriptions of Pimsleur and past experience with Dutch in 3 Months, you might be slightly further along, but none of these things will get you reliably to B1.

I'll probably install EuroTalk tomorrow, but I don't expect that to get me to B1, either. I'm marginally more optimistic that the Prisma Self-teaching course might get me further, or _Taking Dutch Further_ might also. But I probably won't tackle any of those this week.

Nu ga ik op televisie kijken, waarschijnlijk NCIS. In Engels.

ETA: Why is there a single syllable word for "elephant" in Russian? This isn't just something NCIS:LA made up. I checked it out. It appears to be for real.

Jeb Bush has a book out -- or does he?

My impression of Jeb Bush for a while now has been that a lot of people seem to think he's the smart(er) brother, but I've never seen any evidence to support their belief.

Whether or not he's the smart(er) brother, I think this book constitutes solid evidence that this is a man who has absolutely no intention of ever getting elected to national office.


ETA: Wow, I must be tired. There was a typo in the subject line. Geez.